UC Riverside

Regional archaeological investigations were conduced in the limestone karst landscape surrounding the pre-Hispanic Maya center of Pacbitun, Cayo District, Belize. The components of this "karstscape" range from large caverns to diminutive outcroppings, most containing evidence of pre-Hispanic Maya ritual use. Investigations focused specifically on Actun Lak cave, the Nohoch Tunich Bedrock Outcrop complex, and Actun Naj Che rockshelter, although others are discussed, all revealing an extensive, but subtle program of architectural modification connecting several of them, and indicating them as components of culturally significant places. The objectives of this study are illuminating the range of landmarks subsumed under the pre-Hispanic concept, ch'een, a term commonly glossed as cave, but referring to any hole in the ground, understanding who used the karstscape, and providing insight into the social significance of it for the surrounding communities. Data were gathered during three stages of fieldwork, including regional reconnaissance; initial investigations, involving surface collecting, mapping, and photography; and lastly, extensive excavations, followed by laboratory analyses, with a subset of ceramics subjected to Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis. Overall, the data reveal members of the Pacbitun polity began using the karstscape in the Late Preclassic (300 B.C.-100 B.C.) through the early Postclassic (A.D. 900-1200), with most activity occurring during the final two centuries of the Late Classic (A.D. 700-900). They also demonstrate a previously unsubstantiated connection between Pacbitun and the major center of Xunantunich during that later time. Interpretations employ the cartographic idea that shifting interpretive scales of resolution obtains a wealth of social information from a landscape. In particular, the unruly character of the modified spaces indicate a purposefully crude aesthetic mimicking nature employed in their construction, possibly used in transforming parts of the karstscape into a pleasure park. Alternatively, Actun Lak is rich in water symbolism, and its earliest use inscribed it as the primary rain shrine for the Pacbitun community. One of the last Pacbitun kings drew on that memory of place in the final century of the Late Classic period, transforming the cave into an elaborate royal performance stage in a last-ditch, yet ultimately unsuccessful, effort at restarting the failed weather system.